• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.832-839
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• 2007

The geometry and dimensions of an expansion chamber are decisive factors in thermal puffer plasma chamber designs. Because they together dominate the temperature and speed at which the cooling gas from the chamber flows back through a flow channel to the arcing zone for the successful interruption of fault currents. In this study, we calculated the flow and mass transfer driven by arc plasma, and investigated the effects of a flow guide installed inside a thermal puffer plasma chamber. It is found that the existing cold gas of the chamber mixes with hot gases entrained from the arcing zone and is subjected to compression due to pressure build-up in the chamber. The pressure build-up with the flow guide is larger than that without due to a vortex which rotates clockwise around the chamber center. By the reverse pressure gradient, the mixing gas of the chamber flows back out for cooling down the residual plasma near current zero. In the case with the flow guide, the temperature just before current zero is lower than that without, and the Cu concentration with high electrical conductivity is also less than that without the flow guide.